OPTICAL CHANNEL WAVE-GUIDES IN ALGAAS MULTIPLE-QUANTUM-WELL STRUCTURES FORMED BY FOCUSED ION-BEAM-INDUCED COMPOSITIONAL MIXING

Optical channel waveguiding in a AlGaAs multiple-quantum-well structure is demonstrated in a channel formed by compositional mixing induced by focused ion beam (FIB) implantation. Selective mixing is achieved by FIB implanting Si++ with a dose of 5 x 10(14) cm-2 followed by rapid thermal annealing at 950-degrees-C for 10 s. Raman microprobe spectra are used to characterize the lateral variation of compositional mixing. Channel waveguide loss of 17.2 dB/cm is measured compared to 10-12 dB/cm measured for planar waveguiding. Mode field pattern measurements indicate that a change in effective index of 2.7 x 10(-4) was induced, corresponding to an approximate mixing depth of 270 nm.